Phonetic burglar and other alarm



Aug. 19, 1924, 1,505,326

M. FIELD PHONETIC BURGLAR AND OTHER ALARM Filed 001;- 29, 1919 2Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR MARTIN FIELD f kmm W Aug. 19, 1924,

M. FIELD PHONE-TIC BURGLAR AND OTHER ALARM Filed Oct. 29 1919 2Sheets-Sheet 56.2

l HVEHTOR MARTIN FIELD Patented Aug. 19, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MARTIN FIELD, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR or ONE-HALF 'ro BENGOLDSHER, on

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

PHONETIC BURGLAR AND OTHER ALARM.

Application filed October 29, 1919. Serial No. 334,137.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MARTIN FIELD, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Phonetic Burglar and OtherAlarms, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to devices for. automatically sounding an alarm incase of fire or when unauthorized persons attempt to enter an apartmentor building by opening a window or door.

One of the objects of my invention is the provision of an alarm systemwhich will be set in motion by an electric switch operated in case offire or by the opening of a window or door and,'through theinstrumentality of a sound reproducing record and instrument and theordinaryservice telephone, notify the operator at the telephone switchboard that the apartment is on fire or is being entered by a burglar.alarms have been devised, but to my knowledge the majority of these havebeen for the purpose of frightening the intruder in an attempt to scarehim away, or for causing a flash at the central switch board, and bothtypes of these alarm devices have involved the employment of extensiveand complicated systems of wiring and require more or less extensiveadditions to and alterations of the service telephone instrument. Butwith my device, the alarm is sounded at a central switch board throughthe medium of the ordinary telephone instrument installed in theapartment of the subscriber, so that little or no sound is made in theinvaded apartment and the police authorities will be notified of theentry without this knowledge being conveyed to the intruder, and nomodification of the telephone instrument is re quired. Most burglaralarms which notify a central station are devised along the lines of anannunciator system, whereas in my device I propose to record upon asound reproducing record such information as the name of the subscriber,the telephone number and the street address which is reproduced so thatthe central switch board operator receiving the. information, whichisrepeated on the record and amplified in the telephone transmitter, mayimmediately notify the police of the exact location of the Numerousburglar burglary, thereby saving valuable time and rendering a captureof the intruder much more likely. I prefer to accomplish the diversobjects of my invention by the means and in the manner substantially ashereinafter fully described, and as more particularly pointed out in theclaim. Reference will now be had to the accompanying drawings that forma part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation ofmy burglar alarm apparatus attached to a service telephone instrument,the front wall of the cabinet being removed, and a schematic layout ofthe circuits being shown in conjunction therewith.

Figure 2 is a top plan of one of the relays employed in connection withmy alarm system.

Figure 3 is a view of the rear of a door lock or latch that is utilizedas the master or control switch. 7

Figure 4 is a detail, partly in section, of the alarm circuit closingelement operable by the door or window. I

Figure 5 is a similar view of the device in a set position.

Referring to the drawings, 9 represents a telephone instrument of theusual and well known type having, among its accessories, a mouth pieceor transmitter 10 and a receiver 35 11 that is supported upon the switchactuating or circuit making or breaking hook 12, and which, as is wellknown, upon the raising of the receiver, establishes communication withthe switch board at the central station, and by means of a flash signalsthe switch board operator.

My improved burglar alarm, preferably, consists of a cabinet or box-likestructure 13, upon which the telephone instrument is adapted to beplaced, and through which a sound transmitting conduit passes. The outerportion 14 of this conduit consists of a metal tube having a flaredupper end 15 of a diameter approximately the same as the bell-shaped endof the transmitter 10, and said cup may be provided with a flexible(rubber) fitting or lip that is adapted to be placed over and surroundthe usually flared portion of the transmitter. The lower portion of theconduit consists of a rubber tube 14 connecting with the metal tube 14,while its lower end is fitted upon a hollow stub 16 projecting from theupper face of a soundreproducing box 17 of any well-known type and havinthe usual stylus or needle.

Mounte within cabinet 13 is a :suitable motor 18, preferably of thecoiled spring on the spindle '23 which carries the usual record drum 24ofa phonograph or soundreproducing instrument. However, this drum isshghtly shorter in length than is employed upon the ordinary commercialforms of instruments, and contains a repeated record, which, whenreproduced, de-

- livers to the conduit or tube 14, and through it to the telephonetransmitter 10, such information as the address of the apartment and thetelephone number of the subscriber,:

or either, and the further information that the apartment is beingentered by unauthorized persons with the request that the centraloperator at once notify the police authorities. The purpose of repeatingthis information is because the instrument starts its operation as soonas the receiver is raised,

and it frequently occurs that the operator at the central switch boarddoes not respond immediately the flash is observed on her switch board,and if only one reproduction of the information were given the switchboard operator might fail to plug in until after the giving of theinformation had ceased. Also by repeating the message on the soundreproducing cylinder the central switch board operator can readilycheckthe information as it is repeated.

When the apparatus is set, motor 18 is retradedor arrested by means of abrake mechanism which will now be described. Mounted upon shaft 19adjacent pulley 20 is a large gear 25 that meshes with and actuates a'p1nion 26 carried by a'governor shaft 27, the latter being journaled inhanging bearings 28 depending from an adjacent portion of cabinet 13. kA centrifugal governor 29 is mounted on this shaft 27 as is a brake disk30, the latter being in position to be engaged by thebrake shoe or pad31 carried upon the lower end of brake lever 32.. This lever 32 ispivoted intermediate its ends upon a bracket 33 on cabinet 13, and itsupper end passes upwardly through the intermediate floor 1330f thecabinet where oneiend of a contraction spring 34 is secureld to it, andthe opposite end of said spring is secured to 'floor 13 so that when thebrake-lever 32 is released by the actuating of the alarm* system this"spring will move the lever and shoe away from disk 30 and permit themotor to drive the phonograph drum and sound record or cylinder.

In order to retain thebrake-lev'er in position to hold or arrest theoperation of the motor under normal conditions, I have provided atrigger or latch mechanism which consists of a rocking lever 35, one end36 whereof is flattened and which is pivoted intermediate its endsupon abracket or post 37. Opposite the flattened end lever 35 is provided witha notch 38 adapted to receive a latch pin or stud 39 on the adjacentportion of brakeslever 32. Suitable magnets 40 are provided, the coreswhereof are adapted to attract the flattened end 36 of the rock-lever torelease latch pin 39' from the notch 38 by depressing or lowering theadjacent portion or end of lever 35. Connected to brake-lever 32 is anarm 41 that extends substantially horizontally therefrom towards andpast motor 18, and a rod 42 is pivotally connected to the outer end ofthis arm and extends vertically up through the cabinet to a pointadjacent the telephone switch hook 12 where it is bent laterally'toengage said hook. This permits hook 12 to be lifted upon the actuationof thesystem, thus making connection from the telephone instrument tothe switch-boardat the central station, and at the same time the motorelectrical current in the circuit. a in which 1 is interposed'the closedrelay, shown in detail in Figure 2, consisting of the arms B and I),normally in contact. Above the longer arm B is the magnet C for drawingarm B away from small arm 6 and breaking the circuit a. The circuit a ofthe magnet C, which may also originate in battery A, is carried to aspring latch, shown in Figure 3, where one end thereof is secured to thelatch casing D, and the other end thereof extends between an insulatedcontact post (Z and the opposite pole of battery A. The post d isengaged by a bifurcated plate d mounted upon the key-barrel d of thelock which is adapted to be rotated by the key so' that when the ownerdesires to enter the house the operation of the key will close circuit 0of ma net C and break the These sw1tches, as'clearly shown in Figures 4and ter latch c has been released to close thecircuit between arms B andb any opening of a door or window will serve to close the circuitthrough one of" the spring. switches E, but in order to permit theoccupant to leave the room after setting the device by releasing latch0, a knife switch F is, preferably, mounted upon the same plate uponwhich switch E is mounted, which is to be employed in connection withthe door. This knife switch F is opened to disconnect or break thecircuit by means of a manually operated push button 7'' extending into adepression or concaved recess 7 and is closed by a plunger f extendinginto the same plane as plunger 6 and operated in the same manner asplunger 6 by the closing of the door. 7

It will now be seen that the occupant of the room will be permitted toset the device by leaving the exit door open and operating the manualpush button f before he releases latch c from arm B, but that upon theclosing of the door spring switch 0 will be pushed back thereby breakingthe circuit and knife switch F will be pushedback by plunger f therebyclosing the knife switch, but that upon opening the door, except afterfirst havingoperated. the lock with the key, the knife switch will notoperate except manually and plunger 6 will be projected by spring e andthe circuit to magnets 40 will be closed 4 For the purpose of providinginstrumentalities for individuals to ive an alarm, I have provided aswitch,G of a, preferably, portable type, as shown diagrammatically inFigure l, which is interposed'in circuit a.

This maybe in the form of a push button or a contact plate, such as isemployed in households for signaling from the dim'n room to the kitchen,and is well adapte for use in banks and mercantile establishments whereprotection is desired against holdups.

It will: now beseen from the foregoing description, taken in connectionwith the drawings, that I have provided very simple instrumentalitiesfor automatically operating the ordinary telephone instrument to send ina phonetic alarm message to the central telephone operator, and thatthese instrumentalities will be set in motion either automatically bythe unauthorized opening of either the doc-rs or windows of theprotected premises or voluntarily through extremely simple electricalinstrumentalities.

It will of course be understood that when the present invention isemployed specifically as a fire alarm the spring-switch E may be held inopen position by a fusible link the fusing of which releases the switch.It

will be'appreciated that such instrumentalities may be provided uponflexible cords and distributed about the premises so' as to protect thesame much more thoroughly than such systems are ordinarily designed todo and at much less expense and trouble.

What I claim as new is A phonetic alarm comprising a telephone serviceinstrument including a transmitter and a receiver hook controlling thetalking circuit of said instrument, in combination with a sound recordand reproducer therefor, a sound tube connecting said reproducer andtransmitter, mechanism for o crating said record, a brake deviceconslstmg of a rotatable element on said operating mechanism, athree-arm'lever pivoted adjacent the intersection of its arms, abrake-shoe on one of said arms engageable with said rotat-.

able element to release and stop theoperating mechanism, a linkoperatively connecting a lateral arm of said lever to the recelver hookto raise and lower the latter, a rocklever having latching engagementwith the' third arm of said lever, *electrd-magnetic 'means foroscillating said rock-lever, and current conductors connected to saidelectromagnetic means and having a sw1 tch interposed therein wherebythe circuit 1n said actuates said rock-lever through said magnets tomovesaid three-arm lever.

Signed at Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, this 21st dayof October,

conductors is opened and closed and thereby

